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The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic

The current study investigated the association between psychological factors and financial behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in older people. Older people were chosen compared to other age groups because of the relatively greater impact in this age group of suboptimal financial decisions on fut...

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Autores principales: Arya, Vandana, Banerjee, Rajabrata, Lowies, Braam, Viljoen, Christa, Lushington, Kurt
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10249876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37289775
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286733
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author Arya, Vandana
Banerjee, Rajabrata
Lowies, Braam
Viljoen, Christa
Lushington, Kurt
author_facet Arya, Vandana
Banerjee, Rajabrata
Lowies, Braam
Viljoen, Christa
Lushington, Kurt
author_sort Arya, Vandana
collection PubMed
description The current study investigated the association between psychological factors and financial behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in older people. Older people were chosen compared to other age groups because of the relatively greater impact in this age group of suboptimal financial decisions on future financial wellbeing. We hypothesised that the psychological factors facilitating general wellbeing during the COVID-I9 pandemic, i.e., positive mental wellbeing, hope, and positive coping, will have positive effects on financial behaviour. Based on telephone interviews, 1501 older Australians (Men = 750 and Women = 751; 55-64y = 630; > 65y = 871) completed an omnibus questionnaire examining coping, hope, mental wellbeing, and financial behaviour. Data was analysed using logistic regression and an ordinary and two-stage least square frameworks. Analyses revealed that the psychological factors identified as facilitating general wellbeing during the COVID-I9 pandemic also facilitated positive financial behaviour with hope and mental wellbeing emerging as significant determinants. Based on weightings from principal component analysis, one item each from the hope and mental wellbeing scale with eigenvalues > 1 were found to be robust predictors of positive financial behaviours. In conclusion, the findings support the assumption that the psychological factors associated with general wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic are also associated with positive financial behaviour. They further raise the possibility that single hope and positive mental well-being items can also be used to monitor psychological health and predict financial behaviour in older people and, in particular, at times of crisis. The latter may be useful measures for government to monitor psychological and financial wellbeing and inform policy for supporting older people at times of crisis.
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spelling pubmed-102498762023-06-09 The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic Arya, Vandana Banerjee, Rajabrata Lowies, Braam Viljoen, Christa Lushington, Kurt PLoS One Research Article The current study investigated the association between psychological factors and financial behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in older people. Older people were chosen compared to other age groups because of the relatively greater impact in this age group of suboptimal financial decisions on future financial wellbeing. We hypothesised that the psychological factors facilitating general wellbeing during the COVID-I9 pandemic, i.e., positive mental wellbeing, hope, and positive coping, will have positive effects on financial behaviour. Based on telephone interviews, 1501 older Australians (Men = 750 and Women = 751; 55-64y = 630; > 65y = 871) completed an omnibus questionnaire examining coping, hope, mental wellbeing, and financial behaviour. Data was analysed using logistic regression and an ordinary and two-stage least square frameworks. Analyses revealed that the psychological factors identified as facilitating general wellbeing during the COVID-I9 pandemic also facilitated positive financial behaviour with hope and mental wellbeing emerging as significant determinants. Based on weightings from principal component analysis, one item each from the hope and mental wellbeing scale with eigenvalues > 1 were found to be robust predictors of positive financial behaviours. In conclusion, the findings support the assumption that the psychological factors associated with general wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic are also associated with positive financial behaviour. They further raise the possibility that single hope and positive mental well-being items can also be used to monitor psychological health and predict financial behaviour in older people and, in particular, at times of crisis. The latter may be useful measures for government to monitor psychological and financial wellbeing and inform policy for supporting older people at times of crisis. Public Library of Science 2023-06-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10249876/ /pubmed/37289775 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286733 Text en © 2023 Arya et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Arya, Vandana
Banerjee, Rajabrata
Lowies, Braam
Viljoen, Christa
Lushington, Kurt
The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic
title The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic
title_full The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic
title_short The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older australians: evidence from the early stages of covid-19 pandemic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10249876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37289775
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286733
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